Dear Friends,
As you all know, at Dream India, we have been conducting classes at a few corporation and government schools in Chennai. I am writing this email with a hope to find some solution to the problems we have in our weekend classes.The standard of the students [ 8th and 9th] is really poor and many of them find it difficult to identify alphabets and worst cannot read and write Tamil [ even after 10 years of Tamil] correctly.
When I discussed the situation with one of the HM's [ I do not want to bring the name here ] I am close with, I got to know the following,
- With due respects to ABL, the students fail to learn the letters. This hampers them a lot when they come to sixth standard. Example, they can say "apple" as soon as we show an apple, but if you write in Tamil or English as apple, they cannot read. Teachers at sixth and higher are forced to teach alphabets and letters from sixth standard. I also heard special instruction being given NOT to teach syllabus for one month or so but letters. But learning these at sixth really does not help them. They pick up slow and hence everything as a result suffers.
- There is a unwritten rule that 85% MUST pass till 9th Standard. This has resulted in reduction of pass mark to 25 and NOT 35 as usual. Even then, only 30% of students actually score this 25. Teachers are forced to give 10 to 15 marks as bonus and pass them. The result: everyone passes and there is no real difference between a hard worker and even without knowing to write their parents name they come to 8th and 9th.
- Gone are the days when students had respect for teachers. These days Government rules have given more freedom to students and tried up hands of teaching staff. In one of the schools where a lady is a HM, it seems a student and father both came drunk and did not leave the school premises. A lady she is, she could not do anything and was at their mercy to leave the premises.
- Students use cell phone, earn money by working in night, come drunk, break the table, bench etc and do all bad things which actually influences other good students too. As soon as they have some cash, they think they own the world.
- Teachers feel really bad that their hands have been tied. They are not supposed to punish the children. The maximum they can do is ask students to run a few rounds in the ground. In the process, the student fakes fainting and creates a big fuss.
- Parents participation is absolutely nil. In most of the families, situation is something like this - Father drinks, drinks and only drinks. Mother does some house hold work and runs the family. They assume kids are going to school. In a few cases, student took a color dress with him and changed dress to play with elders [ who failed in tenth already ] and return home exactly as if he comes from school. Only after a week, when teachers asked his mom to meet them through someone about his long absence, this was discovered.
- How is the situation in rural areas? Is the situation there better, especially the respect to teaching staff from students? How is ABL doing there? Do they also face the same problems that are being faced by these teachers?
We are trying to bring up the 30 - 40 kids we interact with and it is working, but what about the rest 200+ is the question we have. We are not full time workers and it hurts.
I feel these are fundamental problems that needs to be addressed and simply passing students is really harming them than doing any good. There are many eminent leaders in this group and we would like to hear from you. A lot of our action2020 groups work on education and hence your thoughts and solutions would help us all. Looking forward to hearing a workable solution from you all.
Thank you all.
Regards,
Natarajan
Dream India
Natarajan
Dream India
"Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress." - Mahatma
http://di2020.
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